Beyond Green

Eau Claire reviews sustainability plans

Trevor Kupfer, photos by Andrea Paulseth |

When you picture the City of Eau Claire in 2030 – go ahead, try to picture it – do you see a regional rail transportation system, community food plots, and bans on plastic bags and styrofoam? How about downtown buildings with renewable energy sources and vegetation on the roofs? Well the locals invited by Community Development to draft amendments to the comprehensive plan hope to see these items, and are asking the plan commission and city council to envision them as well.

Community Development recently concluded four monthly workshops to review the city’s 20-year comprehensive plan in regards to sustainability. The group invited members of various city boards and commissions, as well as the Neighbors Association, Board of Realtors, Home Builders Association, university officials, and more. “A good cross-section of the community,” said Darryl Tufte, director of Community Development, adding about 30 people attended each session.

Tufte said Community Development provided an initial list of ideas, based on what other communities are doing, but several new ideas came out of the workshops. The result is a 27-page Plan Amendment that will come before the City Plan Commission on Jan. 19. If the commission decides the amendments are worthwhile, the topic will go to public hearings, back to the plan commission, and, finally, to the city council.

The topics outlined in the amendment can be labeled with the buzzword “green.” Though “green” typically conjures up environmental concerns, the suggestions address human and economic sustainability as well.

Most of the suggestions, if not all, follow the state’s Smart Growth Planning legislation. On the subject of energy efficiency, for instance, the document suggests the city reexamine its outdoor lighting and adopt the state’s goal of 25 percent renewable energy by 2025.

In regards to food, the amendment calls for the preservation of agricultural lands, the development of community gardens on blighted or vacant property, and attracting a grocer to downtown.


    The city should also consider updating water quality and erosion programs, promoting rain gardens and barrels, restoring native vegetation, and passing a tree-preservation ordinance, the amendment states.

Developers and commercial properties may take interest in the amendment’s suggestions of offering incentives for green and energy-efficient buildings, promoting mixed-use development, and drafting an ordinance that would require the reuse of construction debris. The document also asks the city to measure a business’s economic success environmentally and socially, not just financially.

The transportation section calls for the city to contribute to the regional rail system plan, continue support for the bus system, and additional bike- and pedestrian-friendly streets.

The chapter with the most potential for resistance and debate regards waste and recycling, as the city would consider an ordinance requiring garbage haulers to charge residents by weight instead of container size and a citywide ban on plastic bags and styrofoam. It does, however, ask for a single-stream recycling program where residents wouldn’t need to separate items, with the hope of increasing participation.

 “A lot of them will take some time,” Tufte said of the amendments. The various projects and items outlined in the plan amendment have target years assigned to them. Some are short term, others long, and some of them are being done right now, he added. “It spells out a time frame to move things forward. It doesn’t mean the city will do it, but they’ll have to consider it.”

    The City Plan Commission Meeting will be at 7pm on Monday, Jan. 19 in the Council Chamber of City Hall. Visit the City’s website, to see the amendment draft and list of sustainability items, etc.

    Check out a discussion titled Sustainable, Eco-Friendly Interior Design for Your Home and Business at LE Phillips Memorial Library, on Jan. 10 at 1:30pm.